Inner Beauty
by Idiom Laurels
Summary: (This is a fanfic for my friend BluAyu, with much love.) Bakura's been awfully tired and depressed lately, but what could possibly be wrong? It is Bakura after all!


A-N: Well, BluAyu,here's your fanfic! It sort of completely got off subject, though, so I apologize. Heh. (And actually, I think it's absolutely the strangest thing I've ever written.) Be warned, poor, innocent readers.  
-

**_Inner Beauty_**

-

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shinning brightly, the birds were chirping merrily, the young children happily skipped about in an innocent game of tag, and it was all overshadowed by the sniffling of one Ryou Bakura. Now, the question that comes to mind with the thought of this scene is simply: why on such a splendid day was this boy upset? What, with his charm and good-looks. What, with his seemingly full life. What, with his devoted friends. What?

"What's the matter, Ryou?" a worried looking Yuugi asked, approaching his rather depressed friend.

"I don't have a date for the 'Brothers' Picnic' on Saturday," the boy replied, resting his chin on his knee.

Yuugi sat beside Ryou on the park bench he resided on, turning to him with his usual expression of friendly curiosity.

"You mean a brother?" Yuugi asked.

"Yeah," Ryou said, looking over at his shorter friend sadly.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don't have a brother, either."

The two boys shared a meaningful glance, their eyes locked, their hands slowly inching toward each other until finally they met and presented each other with an affectionate squeeze. After a moment or two of this, though, both Ryou and Yuugi decided it might be viewed as a little strange, so they released each other's hand and casually averted their eyes.

"Do any of your other friends have brothers, Yuugi?" Ryou asked, looking up at the sky to admire its perfect blueness. It provided such tranquility, and yet it was so vast that trying to fathom it made even the smartest of men sweat in intimidation. If only he could be like the sky, Ryou thought, inhaling a deep breath, slowly, to hold down the warmth in his chest.

While Ryou continued to stare up with that wistful expression, Yuugi was in thought. It occurred to him that no body he knew would be going to that picnic. That was odd. No one he knew had a brother (besides Seto Kaiba and a few others)? That couldn't be accurate. It just couldn't be! But really, it didn't matter.

"No," Yuugi finally answered, giving up on his mental search.

"That's a shame," Ryou said, offering Yuugi a smile. "It seems siblings are becoming scarce."

Yuugi laughed.

"Or at least brothers."

The two chuckled.

"Well, goodbye Yuugi," Ryou said, waving at his friend as he hurriedly walked away.

Yuugi was left a little surprised. That was an awfully strange cure for an awfully strange problem. Maybe there was actually something else on Ryou's mind, other than brothers. But what, with his charm and good looks, his seemingly full life, his devoted friends. What?

-

Ryou arrived back at his apartment about twenty minutes after his talk with Yuugi, and although Yuugi's face and words were always a pick-me-up, he found himself still rather depressed. It was probably obvious that not having a brother wasn't his main concern, that happened to be a lie made to cover the bout of other worries. But even so, it just added to poor Ryou's sad thoughts.

The white-haired boy torpidly crawled onto his sofa and struggled to reach for the remote on the table in front of him. A few seconds of stretching his left arm as far as he could failed, however, so he gave up and buried his head into a throw pillow.

All his exhaustion soon caught up to him, and the boy found himself drifting off to sleep for the first time in nearly two days. But in his slumber, Ryou's mind only compiled every little problem and converted them into one stressful nightmare.

_Ryou cautiously lifted a cute pink teacup to his mouth and took a diffident sip from it. The boy appeared frightened as he drank his tea. Something about the setting didn't look safe, he thought, as he scanned the room. For one thing, the chair he sat on was a little pink cloud, and the walls weren't walls at all, but rather a deeper shade of pink coloured sky. The whole décor was suspicious, as if it was spawned from some sort of dementia. _

_Ryou looked off yonder, seeing a long, long stretch of the exact same pink sky theme. It was very clear to him that something terrible was about to happen, because not only had his tea become suddenly cold over the course of the ten minutes he had been looking around, but the clouds appeared to be moving in the slight wind. _

_All at once, it occurred to Ryou that he shouldn't even be able to sit on a cloud, and he found himself dropping from the pink heaven. Although most might think falling from such a high perch was exceedingly scary, Ryou thought it a relief to finally get away from that horrid pink death trap. _

_With a tiny thump, Ryou soon landed on what he knew to be his own bed. He looked up at his familiar room, which wasn't as familiar as he remembered, since everything was pink. A terrible muse invaded Ryou's thinking space then: what if _he _was pink? Appalled with the mere idea, Ryou shot out of bed and rushed over to his mirror, which was oddly about a mile off in the distance. When he arrived, out of breath and thoroughly bewildered, he shifted his eyes to the glass and speculated over himself. Everything appeared normal. He wasn't pink, he wasn't blue, and he wasn't yellow. He was his usual, multi-coloured self. What good news. But as soon as his mind eased, a hand reached out from the mirror and grabbed the poor boy, pulling him into the backwards mirror-world. Ryou screamed and flailed in protest, but it wasn't any use. For every move he made, the Mirror Ryou countered perfectly. _

_Having long given up, Ryou had been knocked unconscious by a fist identical to his own. The boy stirred, met with the sight of, again, that accursed pink cloud setting. There was only one thing he had to say to that: DAMN IT. He would be eaten alive by bunnies before he knew it. He had to escape! _

"_I can't be on a cloud, I can't be on a cloud!" Ryou assured himself, blubbering and crying into his own hands as he dropped to his knees in self-pity. Woebegone at the failed attempt to fall from the cloud again, the boy slithered back to the little pink cloud table, and his cold cup of tea. _

_Sad, pathetic, Ryou tears plopped into his tea. He had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him he was going to be stuck in the pink heaven drinking tea for a very long time. He just wanted to go back to his room and go to sleep! He hadn't slept in so long…_

_Two more tears dropped into the cup. Plop. Plop. _

_Ryou looked up from his misery at the sound a meow. It was a cat. A cute, fluffy, pink cat. The white-headed boy reached out and stroked the kitty, it had a very pleasant calming effect on him._

"_You better not start talking," Ryou said softly, petting the cat. _

"_What are you doing, boy?" a deep voice asked. Ryou jumped, scaring the cat away. _

"_Who's there?" Ryou cried, looking around frantically. Ryou screamed loudly as he felt arms reach around his torso. _

"_Be quiet," the voice said, sliding one hand over Ryou's mouth. _

_A panicked Ryou tried to get out of the strong stranger's grasp, but with no luck, almost as though he had lost all his physical strength. _

_Ryou yelled out a muffled, "Rrrh oouh roouh ieee!" and was answered back a rough tackle to the ground._

_"I said be quiet. Learn to listen," the voice said scornfully. Ryou struggled to see the face of the man holding him down; if he was going to die, he at least wanted to know who killed him. With one final thrash, he turned himself over onto his back and looked up for the first time at the face of his attacker… He couldn't believe his eyes. It was… himself. Or so it appeared. "You're very disobedient," he continued, releasing his hand from the poor boy's mouth and instead using it to secure Ryou's arm._

_"What do you want?" Ryou whimpered, as the pink cat ran over his hair. "Ouch…"_

_"I want you to be silent," the other Ryou said sternly._

_It seemed that the other boy was hardly using any strength at all to hold Ryou down, yet he still couldn't break from it. He felt so helpless, and frightened. So, fearing for his health and **life**, Ryou shut his mouth._

_"Good boy," he said, after Ryou had complied, a devilish smirk playing upon his lips, as he leaned over and quickly stole a kiss from the stifled boy. The other Ryou shifted himself around until he was positioned just over the boy, and he leaned over to look him in the eye with a cold, evil stare._

_Ryou closed his eyes, but oddly could still see everything that was going on. Finding it useless, he reopened them, and returned a glare just as angry as he was frightened._

_As the two nearly identical boys stared it out, the cat was busy chasing around a hat made from the pink clouds. The hat floated upward, and the cat found itself having to fly just to keep up with it. The two pink cloud-dwellers ran about for a few moments, until finally the cat caught the hat, and clawed at it until it ripped in half and started spewing pink coins, many of which fell upon Ryou and the other boy. Ryou looked around at all the money falling around him, only to see that his clothes had turned pink at some point. But the other Ryou's clothes were normal. That didn't seem fair at all. It was probably the fault of that blasted cat and its frolicking. It always was._

_After the coins had stopped raining upon the boys, the wicked-looking Ryou blinked, and pulled himself off of Ryou with a maniacal chuckle. The boy wished he could have covered his ears; something about the laugh was very unsettling._

_"What do you want?" Ryou asked again, this time sounding more hysterical._

_"Don't you like this place? It's very peaceful, don't you think?"_

_"No! Now tell me what you want!"_

_"Wouldn't you like to stay here, Ryou?"_

_"No, I hate this place!"_

_"Are you sure? If it was that bad, you would have left already."_

_"I can't leave! If I could I would have a long time ago!"_

_"Stop your complaining," the other Ryou said as he approached the white-haired boy. "If you don't like it here, then you should be able to go somewhere else, shouldn't you? It's your mind, control it."_

_"I can't," he cried._

_"You can't. And do you know why?"_

_"No…"_

_"It's because you're weak, Ryou. Why not offer the job to someone more qualified?"_

_"I'm not weak!" he shouted, scooting away from the other Ryou as quickly as he could._

_"You are," the eviler boy said, sliding himself over to Ryou and grabbing hold of his arms. Ryou's protests of kicking and struggling did him no good. That evil being was too overpowering to keep away. It was too hard; he was too weak. He had nothing with which to help him get away, and with Ryou so tired, it seemed unlikely he would be able to fend him off._

_"You can't have my mind!" Ryou yelled in exhaustion, desperately trying to pull away with the last stores of his energy._

_"Just give in," he said in a hushed, disquieting whisper. "Then you can stay here."_

_"I won't…" Ryou whimpered, clearly on his last attempts._

_The other Ryou smiled with pure wicked intent at the realization that his counterpart would soon concede the battle they'd been fighting. It was the time to do away with him, and take the chamber for himself._

_The darker being hurried to pin Ryou down, drawing a dagger from his left pocket and threateningly placing it just under the quivering boy's chin. Needless to say, Ryou was beyond upset, and could only try with all his remaining will not to shake too much, and not to cry._

_"I'll admit you put up a better fight than I expected," the being said, slowly running the dull side of the blade up over Ryou's cheek playfully, as if he enjoyed the look of terror on the boy's face. "I'm quite satisfied. You've truly worn yourself out completely," he laughed, making a quick incision to Ryou's soft skin._

_Ryou let out a soft cry as a stream of blood trailed down his face from his small wound. Just the sight made the other Ryou chuckle with pleasure, and with it, he bent over to lap up every drop of blood from the boy's face._

_"Such pure blood is refreshing. You're truly untainted," the other Bakura slurred, running his tongue over his lips. "And I plan on drinking every last drop."_

_Ryou shuddered at the thought. He was going to die, lose all control…_

_The dark being then brought the dagger back to Ryou's neck, and with one slash…_

Ryou fluttered his eyes open, seeing that at some point he had fallen onto the floor. At once he tried to calm himself; he was trembling terribly. After rising to his feet, he heard a knock at the door. It must have been what woke him up.

"Yes?" Ryou greeted, swinging the front door open to see who was there.

"Hey Ryou!" said an overly excited Yuugi with a wide, exaggerated grin on his face. He had been long thinking about his friend's depression and tired expression. Unable to accept just letting him go home to an empty apartment all by himself to wallow in his own pitiful, lonely existence, Yuugi decided to go to him and try for a second time to cheer him up.

"Oh, Yuugi, please come in and take a seat," Ryou offered, visibly still nervous, sweating, frightened; Yuugi had his work cut out for him. Yuugi walked casually inside, and took a seat on the sofa Ryou had been sleeping. "Um, excuse me for a second, I'll be right out," Ryou said, hurrying off to the bathroom, where he proceeded in fixing his hair and putting a wet, cold cloth to his face, to wash away whatever little blood still remained from his cut.

That was too close…

After a few minutes of Yuugi sitting around worriedly squeezing a pillow, Ryou emerged and took a seat beside his friend.

"I was thinking," Yuugi began, running his fingers around the lining of the pillow, "if you're really upset about not going to that brother thing, I'll be your brother—I mean, for the day…"

Ryou smiled at Yuugi's offer. If it hadn't been for Yuugi's concern, who knew what might have happened.

"I think that would be fun," Ryou replied.

Yuugi's nervous smile grew to a cheerful grin. Maybe Ryou was just having an off day; he seemed to be perking up.

"Great!" Yuugi said, getting on his feet. "There are going to be a lot of games there, so if I were you, I'd get my rest. You look a little tired."

Ryou slouched over into the sofa.

He wasn't going to be able to take this for too much longer.

-End


End file.
